Super Bowl LVII Ads – Latinos still nearly absent

When Dr. Ines Poza started tracking ethnic representation in Super Bowl ads about 20 years ago, she noticed, “animals were featured as protagonists more often than minorities, with Latinos nowhere to be seen.” After a promising showing last year with Rocket Mortgage leading the charge featuring a phenotypically Latina child alongside Anna Kendrick, “It’s back to White, some Black and the occasional Asian or curly-haired, indeterminate, mixed-race person as the central characters.” She continues, “We’re also back where we were 20 years ago with animals as protagonists more often than Latinos. And of those, virtually none look like the more than 60 million Latinos currently living in the U.S.”

Dr. Poza explains why this is important. “The majority of U.S. Latinos are indigenous looking (darker skinned), economic refugees. This is because indigenous looking people are over-represented among the poor and disadvantaged throughout Latin America. When the few Latinos in ads are Caucasian, aside from not reflecting the U.S. Latino population, it suggests indigenous looking people are not worth representing.”

She continues, “The one ad this year with Latinos in the starring role – Amazon – was cast using Caucasian actors. It’s only when the dad mutters ‘Rapido, Rapido’ that we realize this is supposed to be a Latino family.”

With roughly 20% of the U.S. population being of indigenous Latin American descent Dr. Poza calls this year’s ads, “Nothing like the world we live in. Go to a bank, restaurant, doctor’s office, anywhere, and most likely a Latino works there.”

She continues, “And less than half of this year’s ads had Black protagonists, even fewer if you eliminate celebrity-centric ads, which is down from two years ago when the majority had mixed-race or Blacks at least sharing central roles. Instead, there’s a laziness in casting with Black, Asian and possibly Latino extras showing up out of focus in the background.”

“From a marketing perspective this is less about doing what’s right and more about creating messaging that’s relevant. For brands to be relevant, they need to connect with the world people live in. So far advertisers, for all the money they spend, are missing the mark on this. In focus groups following the Super Bowl, ‘token casting’ as one respondent put it, comes off as ‘cheesy’ and ‘out of touch’.” Dr. Poza suggests, “Brands need to demand more from their ad agencies – insist they demonstrate genuine understanding of the world their consumers live in. A big part of this is understanding how and with whom people live and work and delivering on meaningful, smart and effective ethnic representation.” Dr. Poza concludes, “This type of relevance should organically lead to the kind of fun and innovative advertising we expect from the Super bowl. Let’s see what next year brings.”

About Author

Ines Poza, Ph.D. is Director of Poza Consulting Services in Santa Monica, CA providing market research and strategic planning for the Total Market.